The Capacity of the Human Heart
Lup-dup. Lup-dup. This week The Remarkable Ordinary focuses on blood swooshing and cycling through heart chambers, opening and closing the valves.
I had a bad scrape as a toddler. One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my mother’s lap afterwards, crying with my ear pressed against her breast. I distinctly recall the comfort of that thumping lup-dup sound of blood swooshing and cycling through her heart chambers, opening and closing the valves.
Lup-dup. Lup-dup. Lup-dup.
The ache of my own heart slowly dissolved into the strong beat of hers. My tears calmed. I was wholly mesmerized by the swishing rhythm. Even today, whenever I’m going through a rough patch, I close my eyes and remember that simple sense of Divine comfort, love and care that moved through me as I sat on Mom’s lap in the living room that afternoon.
A pulsing heart is a remarkable thing.
Two hearts pulsing together is an extraordinary thing.
And a whole world of beating hearts is a thing beyond what my imagination can grasp. So much blood rushing through heart chambers, keeping us all alive together on this planet.
Imagine being close enough and quieting the noise of our own voices enough to be able to hear the lup-dup of all the hearts around us.
Imagine if we could press our ears to the breasts of the ones we speak of as if they are not human.
Lup-dup. Lup-dup. There’s a heart in there. Traces of the Divine.
Imagine if we could press our ears to the breasts of our enemies.
Lup-dup. Lup-dup. There’s a heart in there too.
The Divine in me. The Divine in you. The Divine that rushes through every human heart, like it or not.
In proximity, we experience and remember the Divine stamp pressed in every human heart. In proximity, pulsing blood moving like rivers through heart chambers can be heard and felt and known. In proximity, we can relax our false fears and attune ourselves to a common identity that is greater, more unified, more sacred and more calm than the differences our worked up anxious world perceives.
The capacity of the human heart. This is the Remarkable Ordinary.
Beautiful, Christy. Thank you.
Amen